Why are failed utopias resurrected?
I’m Professor of Communication at the Department of Communication and Culture, BI Norwegian Business School, and a researcher at the Department of Literature and Rhetoric, Uppsala University. I read the rhetorical tradition, from the ancient sophists to contemporary thinkers, against the problems of our time in politics, diplomacy and the economy.
Quinten Massys, The Moneylender and His Wife, 1514. Louvre, Paris.
Professor, BI Norwegian Business School
Researcher, Uppsala University
Affiliated Docent in Rhetoric, Södertörn University
Funded by Formas and The Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies
Current research projects
Current project, 2026–2029
Sustainable Economies? The Swedish Riksbank and Climate Change
How the Riksbank understands and communicates sustainability under its new statutory mandate, and what that says about the democratic accountability of an independent institution.
New project, 2027–2029
The Past, Present, and Future of the Communist Idea in Eastern Europe
How the Ljubljana School of Psychoanalysis, led by Slavoj Žižek, moved from criticising communist ideology to defending the communist idea, and what that says about the role of political utopias in Eastern Europe after the fall of communism.
Research themes
How utopias fail, and why they keep returning
Political Ideologies
The utopia of a people speaking with one voice, and of a society beyond capitalism. Post‑truth, demagoguery, the return of the sophist and the communist idea after communism.
Diplomacy
The utopia of peace through negotiation. The ambassador as a figure and diplomacy as a practice of representation, from the French Revolution to today.
Economy
The utopia of an economy beyond politics. How the independent central bank explains itself, and what happens when it is asked to take responsibility for the climate.
Selected publications
2023
Populism and the People in Contemporary Critical Thought
Bloomsbury Academic, with David Payne and Gustav Strandberg
Edited volume
Rhetoric for experts and institutions
Rhetoric: seeing through language
When a message will be scrutinised, interpreted and answered, speaking well is not enough. I help public authorities, organisations and research environments see their messages through, and see through them before anyone else does.
Courses and workshops
Tailored training for groups, from a half-day to a series of sessions.
Individual coaching
Preparation for the speech, hearing, interview or defence that matters.
Lectures
Research-based lectures for staff days, seminars and conferences.
Writing
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Preliminary Reflections on ’Social Cohesion’ (Part III)
The problem to which a notion like social cohesion refers, is the supposed contemporary division in the people, as if the people…
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Preliminary Reflections on ’Social Cohesion’ (Part II)
Back in 2012, the OECD’s Development Centre focused its annual report on the topic of ‘Social Cohesion’. More specifically, the center had…
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Preliminary Reflections on ’Social Cohesion’ (Part I)
As a scholar of rhetoric, my first impulse when confronted with an unfamiliar concept is usually to try to understand what French…